Chapter 33: Hunting Underwater
In the afternoon, there were only about a dozen individuals practicing in the cultivation area. Lin Xu, Yi Rui, and their clubs weren’t present, instead training in their rented room.
Surrounded by classmates wielding fists, blades, and various weapons, Chen Chu stood alone in the crowd. He held his saber in one hand, resting it behind his back, and closed his eyes slightly.
He had been struggling to grasp the basics of the Insightful Eye before. Today, however, as he entered a state of focused concentration, Chen Chu found a faint image gradually forming in his mind.
With a Spiritual attribute of 55 points, equivalent to five or six times that of an average person, his formidable spiritual force emanated out, enveloping an area several meters around him.
Under normal circumstances, as cultivators progressed, their spiritual force would increase. They could achieve this outward projection of spiritual will, which allowed them to perceive everything in their surroundings.
There was just one catch; when one’s spiritual force sensed an opponent from a distance, that opponent could also discover them at the same time.
Therefore, the creator of this art had conceived an alternative path, one that explored the perception of the human body's five senses. After pushing these senses to their limits, practitioners could cultivate the elusive sixth sense.
With that sense, whenever a malicious gaze fell upon them, regardless of the distance, they could sense it instantly. This ability had proven useful even in the midst of battle, allowing them to anticipate actions before they occurred.
Reciting a mantra in his mind, Chen Chu gradually focused his spiritual force on senses like hearing, smell, and touch, stimulating and magnifying them.
He was uncertain if it was due to the improvement in his strength or the result of the avatar’s evolution, but soon, Chen Chu's body hairs could sense the subtle movement of the air around him. These ripples were being caused by the practitioners around him, as their moving bodies and weapons stirred and tore through the air.
As Chen Chu's consciousness sank into a tranquil state, his mind became akin to a transparent mirror. On its surface, tiny ripples incessantly fluctuated, giving rise to fragmented and indistinct lines.
He continued this until noon, only opening his eyes again then. He glanced at the students around him, who were concluding their own sessions to get ready for lunch, and summoned the attribute page with a thought.
Sure enough, after the notes on saber arts, there was finally a mention indicating that the Insightful Eye had reached the introductory stage.
Seeing this, a smile appeared on Chen Chu's face. As long as he had entered the Insightful Eye state once and recorded his progress in the attribute page, he could build on that progress with each future cultivation.
When everyone else had left, Chen Chu approached a strength testing machine, taking a deep breath. His body sank down as his hot vitality circulated. His right arm, and even the muscles in his upper body, swelled slightly as a surge of ferocious power erupted.
Boom!
Under Chen Chu's punch, the machine embedded in the wall shuddered violently. The numbers on it wildly fluctuated before finally settling at 1650.
With a Strength attribute nearly six times that of an average person, Chen Chu's arm strength had reached four hundred kilograms. Coupled with the substantial enhancement from practicing the Dragon Elephant Art, along with its doubling effect, a single punch had unleashed a terrifying impact force exceeding 1600 kilograms… and this was just a simple outburst of strength.
Chen Chu then moved to the speed testing area; after performing the test, the data showed twenty-four meters per second.
While this speed was already impressive, Chen Chu couldn't help but pause for a moment. If the normal speed for an average person was around six meters per second, then with his agility attribute being five times that of an average person, his speed should be around thirty meters per second, shouldn't it?
Or were speed and strength perhaps different, with speed being more greatly influenced by external factors such as gravity or air resistance, so it wasn’t a simple, direct conversion?
In doubt, Chen Chu conducted some additional tests. He discovered that, aside from the slight discrepancy in movement speed compared to the data, his reflexes were actually five times that of an average person, and his body exhibited remarkable agility and coordination. Evidently, the Agility attribute encompassed those in addition to pure speed.
In addition to this, he could still improve his Physique and Strength attributes by practicing the Dragon Elephant Art. It seemed like his avatar’s evolution had raised his limits, unlike his classmates, who couldn’t further enhance their physique once they reached the peak of the First Heavenly Realm.
***
It was already four o'clock when he completed his daily practice, but Chen Chu didn't leave the school. Instead, he headed to the thirty-third-floor archive room.
Every day, in addition to his cultivation, he would spend time on the top floor reading books. These helped him broaden his knowledge, ensuring that he wouldn't be completely clueless when he ventured out on his own in the future. Such information was also tightly controlled by the authorities, and was practically unsearchable on the internet.
When Chen Chu arrived at the reading area with two books in hand, he saw the girl with ink-black hair sitting in her usual spot by the window. She had her head slightly lowered, quietly engrossed in her reading.
As Chen Chu sat down across from her, Luo Fei seemed to sense his presence and lifted her head slightly.
Upon seeing him, a faint smile appeared on the girl’s charming face. She nodded at Chen Chu as a gesture of acknowledgment, then lowered her head and resumed focus on her book.
Chen Chu returned the smile and then did the same, flipping open the pages of his book to start reading.
The sunlight outside was just right, casting a warm glow on both of them. It brought a sense of coziness, making the atmosphere somewhat lazy and leisurely.
Bam!
A burst of waves erupted through the water of the ten-meter-deep river as a creature, seventy-five centimeters long and clad in heavy armor, suddenly surged from the riverbed. It fiercely snapped its jaws onto the abdomen of a large black fish swimming above, one that was one and a half meters long, weighed dozens of kilograms, and had sharp teeth lining its mouth.
Frenzied and contorting in response to the attack, the fish exerted a powerful force in an attempt to break free. In response, a claw slammed onto its head with an astonishing strength.
Crack!
The armored beast's paw shattered the skull of the snake-headed black fish, twice its size, with a single swipe. It began to feast, its sharp teeth and powerful bite easily tearing the prey apart.
The armored beast, however, was proving itself rather picky, due to its human-like consciousness. It only consumed the meat, showing no interest in the internal organs.
As the scattered organs slowly sank to the bed, they were immediately swarmed by some small fish, each about the size of a finger, that had been swimming in the vicinity. These small fish tore and devoured the remains in a frenzy.
The large fish feasting, while the small fish scavenged for leftovers—this was the underwater ecology of the great river.
Soon, the nearly hundred-catty black fish was completely devoured, and the armored beast’s terrifying digestive ability swiftly converted the food into nutrients. It’s body expanded by a visible margin at an astonishing rate, appearing even more massive and ferocious afterward.
Exhaling a string of bubbles, the armored beast swung its tail and was about to search for the next target.
A dark figure flashed by in the murky depths of the water.
Bang!
A powerful impact struck the armored beast’s abdomen, sending it flying several meters. Its massive body tumbled relentlessly in the water.
Just as the armored beast was regaining its bearings, the creature that had attacked it once again shot forward with astonishing speed. This time, its target was the head.
As it approached, Chen Chu finally got a clear look at the attacker. It was a fish over two meters long, covered in gray scales and resembling a sturgeon. However, its menacing large mouth, filled with sharp teeth capable of easily biting through a person's thigh, made it much fiercer than a regular sturgeon.
This fish was incredibly fast, appearing in front of the armored beast in the blink of an eye, and then...
With a muffled thud, the mutated sturgeon was smacked on the mouth by the armored beast's tail in a retaliatory strike, and its body was flipped over by the terrifying force.
Even though their sizes clearly differed by threefold, it was the bigger one that got flipped. This left the intellectually challenged sturgeon feeling a bit bewildered.
The armored beast lunged forward, its claws ruthlessly digging into the sides of the sturgeon's body and tearing through the scales. The sturgeon thrashed wildly in pain, attempting to shake off the beast clinging to its body. It couldn't break free, however, and the armored beast opened its mouth wide.
Crack!
Under the armored beast’s formidable biting force, the sturgeon's spine was snapped directly. Its body stilled instantly, losing all resistance, and becoming nothing more than food.
In this watery domain, devoid of more powerful mutated beasts, the avatar, with its formidable strength and astonishing defense, had virtually no predators.
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